Drive-through or curbside delivery is becoming increasingly important in the current restaurant industry. Typically, forty to seventy percent of quick-serve restaurant (QSR) revenues come from drive-through customers, and curbside delivery is becoming an increasingly large component of sales in the fast-casual restaurant segment. Unfortunately, current ordering paradigms are fraught with problems. Specifically, current ordering paradigms utilize a single-queue approach that makes customers with small, quick orders wait behind customers with large complex orders. In addition, system capacity is constrained by processing time of the slowest orders and a practical way to significantly expand capacity is not readily available. These problems result in decreased customer satisfaction and significant loss of revenues. Unfortunately, potential customers may choose another restaurant if they see that the drive-through queue is unacceptably long.
FIG. 1 is a top view of a typical drive-through operation. The restaurant (R) may have a dinning area (DA), an office (O), a kitchen (K), and a drive-through area (DT). A vehicle (V) enters the drive-through along a path (P) and stops at a sign/menu-board (S) that contains a menu along with a microphone/speaker combination. Vehicle traffic along the path (P) is indicated by arrows. A driver is prompted by an order-taker through the speaker and dictates the desired order through the microphone contained in the sign/menu-board (S). Two-way interaction occurs via speaker/microphone interaction. The order-taker wears a headset having a microphone and speaker and is located in the drive-through area (DT). Some restaurants now offer a display device in the vicinity of the sign/menu-board that visually confirms the order contents and the amount owed. In some cases, one or two-way video is also used so that the operator can see the customer (and possibly vice-versa).
Once the order has been confirmed (verbally or by monitor), the driver proceeds toward a drive-through pickup window (WP), in queue behind any previous cars, where the driver submits his payment to a window person and then receives his food. Some restaurants use a two-window system during busy times, whereby the driver pays at a payment window (W$) and receives his food at the pickup window (WP).
Current ordering paradigms have a number of problems, a few of which are listed below.
(1) Service Time—During busy times, customers wait in line behind other cars waiting to be served.
(2) Queuing—A single queue means that customers with short/fast orders (e.g., a drink) have to wait behind customers with large, complex orders. Since queuing is on a strict first-in first-out (FIFO) basis, later customers are generally not served until all previous customers have been taken care of. Therefore a whole line of people with quick orders can be held up by a single complex order.
(3) Capacity—There is little that can be done to increase throughput in current ordering paradigms without major restaurant renovations, such as adding another drive-through lane on the other side of the restaurant. Such a solution is expensive and creates many logistical problems with restaurant traffic flow (both pedestrian and vehicular), and is therefore rarely employed in practice.
(4) Cost—Maximizing the throughput during busy periods requires that two to three people be dedicated to the drive-through process. Unfortunately, throughput is still limited by the service time of the slowest order.
(5) Lost Revenue—Restaurant demand is not a fixed quantity. Queuing is self-limiting. As the line gets longer, more people will choose to bypass the restaurant and dine elsewhere. Revenue stream is limited, to a large degree, by throughput of the drive-through operation.
What is needed is a system that can overcome shortcomings of the current ordering paradigms.